Week 52: Natalie & Casey

This week we ventured on yet another cross country trip this month.  Trip #3 was to Montana for the wedding of Natalie, Kent's sister.  We left on Wednesday night at 6pm EST and got to Kalispell, MT at 1:30am.  Erik slept on the first flight for a couple hours but was surprisingly awake during the layover and second flight from Salt Lake City to MT.  He travels well thanks to the makers of Cheerios.

There was some preparation to do once we arrived in getting ready for the wedding so we helped out when we could with that.  Many of Kent's family was here and it was fun to introduce them to Erik for the first time.  It was great to see Natalie and her now husband Casey as well in their natural habitat. :-)  It was fun to visit their properties.  The wedding was held at what I would describe as their primary residence; however, since it was for sale they weren't living there.  They also have a horse boarding property that has another residence which they were staying at.  During their wedding weekend they stayed at the primary residence as did we, which was very convenient.

Auntie Natalie & Erik

Natalie & Casey

Events leading up to the wedding included a nice dinner out (rehearsal dinner) and a boat cruise on Flathead lake.  The wedding was on Saturday evening and was a great success.  Natalie and Casey planned it themselves and it was very classy.  There was around 120-130 people there.  They had the reception on their property as well.  It was fun to see them enjoy the day with their friends and family.  Very happy for them on their special day and pleased to have Casey as a brother-in-law.  We look forward to visiting them again and seeing their beautiful surroundings.  Erik ate Cheerios during the wedding and was very quiet through-out!

Erik driving the boat on the cruise!

On Sunday Natalie and Casey were kind enough to stick around town and spend time with their family and friends.  They organized a white water rafting trip for all who were interested; this was my first white-water rafting trip (Kelli has gone several times before).  Casey and Natalie had their own raft and painted "just married" on the side which was widely popular as we floated down the river.  Everyone who saw it was very congratulatory and it wasn't hard to tell who the bride and groom were since Casey was wearing a tie sans a shirt and Natalie was wearing a veil.  It was a great time and we all stayed in the boat, which is more than we can say for some of the other boats!

That evening we also had a cookout at their horse boarding residence and got to see the horse barns and horses.  I also gave Erik a ride on Casey's small loader tractor.  Erik enjoyed steering and raising and lowering the bucket!  He also liked touching Auntie Natalie's horses!  It's a great horse farm and we were impressed with the work they've done making it functional.

Erik meets Auntie Natalie's horse

On Monday, July 30, we took a car ride through Glacier National Park on the "Going to the Sun Road", which is something you must plan to do.  It was stunning, at times, the natural beauty that is in this park.  It took several hours to complete the trip up to Logan's pass and back, mainly due to the road construction and resulting traffic!  Worth it though.

That evening we celebrated Erik's first birthday.  He spent his day sleeping in the car on the ride through Glacier and then crawling up and down the stairs at the house we were staying at.  We tied some balloons on the back of his pants on one of the belt loops and he enjoyed playing with rest of the balloons we bought him.  He had a smash cupcake, but didn't take an overly aggressive approach in eating it.  He was pretty careful, but managed to make a decent mess of himself by the end.  It was nice to spend his birthday with some of our out-of-town family members that wouldn't have got to participate otherwise.

Erik and his chocolate cupcake!

Erik has been such a precious gift to us and it was a treat having him as part of our family during this past year.  We are very blessed.

**posted by Kent**

Week 51: Dare Devil

We are home again from our 2nd trip of the month and back into the daily stampede of getting out the door in the morning, getting to work and hoping to actually accomplish something, rushing to pick Erik up from daycare before it closes, throwing supper together, sloshing through the nightly bath & bed-time routine and then slogging through the nightly chores so we can get up and do it all again.  Can you tell that I love this routine?!

Due to the timing of our last trip of the month and Erik's birthday, Kent and I decided to buy Erik's birthday present early so he could play with it now rather than waiting until August. (Can you believe that my baby is almost 1?! Yikes)  Erik appears to love anything with wheels and he loves being pulled or pushed on toys around the house.  This make our decision on what to buy him actually quite easy - we bought him a little red sportscar!  It is one where he gets to just sit and enjoy the ride - no pushing, no peddling, no steering (all those things will come in time, though, I'm sure) - there is a tall handle that allows Kent or I to easily push/pull without having to bend over.  This makes my back very happy!  To go along with that theme, Kent's parents, Gramma & Grampa Johnson, bought Erik a red wagon with all terrain wheels.  Erik is in heaven!

One small problem - while in Wisconsin, someone let Erik stand up and "steer" the wagon at Aunt Margaret's and now we have a dare-devil on our hands.  Erik loves to stand up in the wagon and go fast!  I've copied some pictures below to illustrate.  Needless to say, it is nerve-wracking for Kent and I (or really, anyone who happens to see us) as we attempt to keep Erik upright and in the wagon!

Latest Feats & Achievements:  When we got back from Wisconsin, Erik immediately started displaying a new skill - he can now easily pull himself upright on the furniture and walk all around them.  He also likes it when we hold his hands and walk him around.

This Week's Favorite Game/Toy: Besides the car, Erik loves to play "hide and seek" around the ottoman in our living room.  It is quite funny to watch.  He will sit at one end of the ottoman and Kent or I will crouch down at the other end.  We will then crawl towards him and peek around the corner and say "Peek-a-Boo" when we get close.  He loves it and laughs really hard.  He will then chase us back around the ottoman to catch us.  He is getting pretty good at guessing which direction we are coming to get him!

Erik learning how to "drive"

In his wagon at home - starting to stand

And he's up - and laughing the whole time!

Ah, the old tried & true - cardboard box as a car!

His little red school bus on loan from Zbaraschuks

Helping Daddy put together his new sportscar

Driving his new car & carrying a huge passenger!

Week 50: Meeting the Castlebergs (aka Trip #2)

On Friday July 6, we were back at the airport for our 2nd trip this month - this time the trip was to the booming metropolis of Arpin, Wisconsin, to visit Kelli's Castleberg relatives who get together every year (or now every 2 years) around the 4th of July.  We've been on the "attend every 2 years" plan and generally try to also add some days to visit Kent's relatives in Minnesota.  Due to how the 4th of July fell in the week this year and all the other trips we have this month, we could only schedule a long weekend up north this year.  I was very excited to take Erik to Wisconsin and show him off to my family.  We flew into Milwaukee (a first for us), where we met my parents, Nana & Pops, at the airport and then drove the 3+ hours deep into central Wisconsin.
 
Erik was a super trooper again during the airplane ride; we splurged and paid for the last-minute upgrades to business class on AirTran (it was less than $100/person).  It was lovely for both Kent & I to have large, cushy seats where we could move Erik around without bumping into the 3rd passenger that you have to sit with in coach.  I wish we could fly first class all the time!!  Erik slept most of the trip, which meant that Kent and I could relas and catnap as well.  Truly Lovely.  When we got off the airport in Milwaukee, one of the gift shops had a stand of cheeseheads; I had to get a picture of Erik!  Poor Kent, Viking fan that he is, suffered through it.  Of course, I immediately posted the below picture to Facebook!!

First Cheesehead Experience in the Madison Airport

Even though it was only for a weekend, we had a great time in Wisconsin.  My mother's parents used to have a dairy farm there with a separate house across one of the fields from the barn.  While I was growing up, we would spend nearly every Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as some time in the summer, in Arpin visiting family.  Mom is one of 12 Castleberg siblings and those 12 made over 40 first cousins for me to hang out with!  This year was a fair turn-out with relatives coming in from Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, California and, of course, Wisconsin!

I had asked my Dad to do a short baby dedication for Erik on Sabbath while we were with family.  Since the baby dedication that we had here in Florida earlier this year in March was so rushed & hurried, no family members could attend.  I also had wanted Erik to have a more personal & specific service, so Dad was kind enough to put something together and Aunt Margaret was kind enough to agree to let us have the service.  Dad wrote a very nice little homily about family that incorporated our special Scripture texts for Erik, Ephesians 3:16-19.  Dad then also read a poem that he had written for Erik and then had framed (poems are actually Dad's specialty-he writes one for most big family events)!

I've included some snapshots from the weekend.

Erik with Cousin Tara

Whenever the Castlebergs get together, we have to take a picture of any of the 12 siblings and their spouses - the In-Laws and Out-Laws! Below are Kerri, Mark, Barb, Bud, Lois, Donna, Clarence, Phillis, Duane, Marty, Margaret, Michael and Shirley. 

The In-Laws and the "Out-Laws"

During Erik's Dedication

The below photo was taken on Sabbath just before or just after Erik's dedication.  Kent is hold him up by the back of his jumper, I think.  This is my new favorite photo of Erik.  Thank you, Wendy, for taking it and then sharing it!!

My Favorite Photo (taken by Cousin Wendy Morauske)

Week 49: The Calm Between Storms

This has been an incredibly short & busy week!  We arrived home on Sunday from San Diego and we are flying out on Friday for Wisconsin.  We've been home just long enough to unpack, do laundry, try to catch up on chores at home & in the yard and repack our bags!  Add to that madness, a quarter-close at work and there has been very little time to rest or sleep.

After our trip last week, Erik mastered another trick - he can now wave!  He has been practicing it in the privacy of his room, but rarely would exhibit his skills in public.  We also discovered that Erik likes to pull our roll-aboard luggage!  While transferring to our next gate during our Atlanta lay-over, Kent was holding Erik and Erik grabbed the handle of Kent's bag; Kent decided to play with him and took a few steps to see what Erik would do. Erik held on really tight and actually was able to pull the luggage!  Erik thought it was the greatest thing, so after that, Kent would carry Erik so he could reach the handle. Erik would pull the suitcase and then look back at me and laugh.  He then started looking around at all the spectators and when he noticed that people were laughing at him, he started to wave!!  It was the funniest thing to watch!  I tried to post the video that I took with my phone, but can't get it to work.  I've held this blog entry for a few weeks trying to get the video to work, but I'm just going to move on. As consolation, here are some more pictures from our San Diego trip :)

Happy to be Free - off the plane & into the hotel room!!

On the Aerial Tram at the San Diego Zoo

On the Harbor Boat Cruise

Yum, Tasty!  At the Birch Aquarium

The Johnson's at the Pacific Ocean!

For those of you that have been attempting to follow my sporadic-at-best blog, you've noticed that this blog is now in a new place!  On June 30, Apple stopped supporting their MobileMe platform and I had to move my blog to a new host site.  When I first started my blog, I was choosing between MobileMe and Blogspot; I guess I should have gone with Blogspot initially so that I wouldn't have had to switch a year into this endeavor!!  I've had to manually copy everything over - I've managed to get all the text over to this blog, but still need to add all my pictures & captions back into the blog.  I can't grab photos from iPhoto like I could with my last blog, so I have to go back and find all the original photo files on my computer.  This make take a while.  Would anyone care to place wagers on how long it will take me to get photos added?!!

I hope that I'll be able to keep up with the blog now that I'm on a different platform.  Maybe this one will be easier for me.  Maybe.  No promises!    This blog won't have photo albums like the MobileMe one did, but I will be able to post more pictures on a specific blog entry than I was previously able to.

Before our next trip to beautiful Arpin, Wisconsin where Erik will get to meet my Castleberg relatives, we spent the afternoon of July 4 (oh yeah, there's a national holiday this month too!) at the Deininger's house with the Cochran's and the Zbaraschuks.  Both Heather Cochran and Amy Zbaraschuk are pregnant; while we were in San Diego, Heather had her little boy just a few weeks early (her due date was late July).  We were very pleasantly surprised to see all the Cochrans at the 4th of July party, including brand new Devin.  Looking back to my experience, there was no way that I would have been able to get myself out of the house just 2 weeks after delivery, let alone my newborn and related paraphernalia.  William & Heather's energy and initiative put me to shame!  I think Devin is the tiniest baby that I've ever seen (he seems even smaller than Amy's Kaleb who was born a month early).  Rob & Karis put together a pretty great fireworks show; we put ear mufflers on Erik.  He took them off once, was very startled by the resulting noise and then left them on the rest of the time!

Erik & Kent getting ready for the fireworks show!

Week 48: San Diego (aka Trip #1)

The month of July is going to be an extremely busy one for us - and a month that will take us all over the United States!  By the time July ends, we will have been to California, Wisconsin, Montana and Florida (obviously); makes me tired just thinking about it.  We flew out to San Diego the end of June for an annual work meeting called President's Council that Kent now attends in his CFO role.  This was my first trip as the spouse rather than an attendee, so I was greatly looking forward to the chance to relax and enjoy a week's vacation spent with Erik!

The trip out to San Diego was Erik's 2nd plane ride (he flew out to Salt Lake City in March) and thankfully, he continues to be a great traveler.  He nursed during take-off and landing so he didn't have any problems with his ears.  While he didn't take any long naps, he would doze off for about 30 minutes and when awake, he was easily entertained.  On the way out to California, we traveled with several co-workers so the pressure was on to make sure that Erik didn't cry during the entire flight!  One of our coworkers, Paul, stopped by our row and actually took Erik back to sit with his family for a short time.  That was a nice break for Kent & I!

The meetings were held at the Lodges at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California which is an incredibly beautiful location.  The resort is next to the Torrey Pines Reserve, which I walked into nearly every day; the weather there was so nice that I could actually take a walk at 9 AM or at 2 PM - times of day in Orlando where you get from your air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned office or home as quickly as possible!  It was rather odd to be able to be outdoors at any point during the day but it was a good thing!!  The meetings sponsored several events during the week which we tried to attend if Erik's nap schedule permitted.  Otherwise, Erik & I would take a walk in the morning, then I would work while Erik napped until lunch.  Then, after Kent's meetings were over, we would venture out to explore the greater San Diego area.  We toured Balboa Park where Erik loved the kids' miniature train ride and the carousel, the San Diego Zoo where it seems you are always walking up a hill, the Birch Aquarium, the Pacific Ocean so Erik could say that he has been in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans within 6 weeks of each other, downtown San Diego where we took a 1-hour harbor cruise and we visited several lovely restaurants in La Jolla and San Diego.  I don't think we had a bad meal the whole week!

Erik in Balboa Park

Family photo at the San Diego Harbor cruise

One of the highlights of our time in San Diego was that my brother, Kalvin, was able to drive down to visit with us on Tuesday before he flew out for his summer adventures in El Salvador.  Kalvin hasn't seen Erik since last year August; I was a bit worried that Erik would be hesitant or shy around Kalvin.  I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased when Erik reached out to Kalvin as soon as he saw him - this almost never happens!!  Uncle Kalvin has grown quite the mustache and Erik thought it was wonderful.  He babbled with Kalvin and showed him all his tricks!  Even though it was only for a few hours, it was wonderful to see Kalvin again and we hopefully will get to see him in August as he returns from his summer travels.

Erik, Uncle Kal and Kelli.  Check out the mustache!

Week 47: Addictions

A week ago at church Erik experienced whatever it is that the makers of Cheerios put into those little mini donuts that make kids go crazy for them.  Now I know why I see parents on planes with large bags of cheerios.  Erik polished off his little dixie cup of cheerios at church that week.  Later in the following week we gave him some cheerios for one of his meals and watched him try to pick the cheerios up with his finger and then open palm them into his mouth with little regard as to whether the cheerio actually ended up in its final destination.  Many cheerios took the scenic route to the bottom of his bib, where he periodically looked for stragglers when we weren’t fast enough with the new ones on the top of his highchair tray.  He like to put his index finger in the center of the cheerio, pick it up, admire it and then proceed with the open palm delivery.  At another meal I made the mistake of offering him a cheerio before his supper and that activated the “MUST HAVE CHEERIOS” ingredient that resulted in Erik pounding the top of tray for more.  The broccoli and carrots we made for his supper immediately became leftovers.  At least we discovered the magic of cheerios before our numerous airplane trips this summer.  I may have to try them again (they seem so bland thinking about them) to see what all the fuss is about. 

Erik entering a Cheerio-induced state of euphoria!

Early Friday morning we woke up to the sound of a seal barking on the baby monitor.  It turned out to be Erik coughing...not a seal, which was a great relief.  The bad news is that we were pretty sure that it was the sound of the croup cough several of our friends’ kids have experienced.  Some of our friends’ children have ended up in ambulances and hospitals so we were obviously concerned.  He seemed to be able to breathe okay and we kept a close eye on him the remainder of the night.  The next morning he went to the doctor with Kelli and received his treatment regime, which consists of nebulizer treatments 2x per day.  He hasn’t impersonated the seals again, which we are thankful for so he seems to be on the mend.

Erik also sprouted his 8th tooth this week.  He rubs his ears a lot, which is apparently a by-product of teething (feeling discomfort near your ears/jaws).  Erik continues to crawl speedily around the house and is interested in swinging doors, plantation shutters, shoes and of course anything that looks unusual.  He is becoming more proficient at clapping and this week I started showing him how to make funny sounds by moving your finger up and down over your lips.  He has tried with limited success, but it has been fun to watch him try.  

Kelli's Comments: The end of this week marked Kent's first Father's Day with Erik.  Kent has proven to be a terrific & loving Daddy; Erik is always so happy to see Kent every morning and evening.  While they don't have matching outfits, I did try to make sure that Erik matched Kent as closely as possible for church this weekend.  Erik has also proven to be willing to wear hats and so I put him in them as much as possible!  I've included a picture that I took of my guys outside of church.  Aren't they handsome?!

Kent & Erik on Father's Day Weekend

Week 46: Baby Shower, Part 2

Sadly, I'm updating the blog just a "few" weeks late! I'm having a really hard time remembering all the details that took place this week.  Thankfully, I do have pictures to help me remember.  This week started out with Amy’s baby shower on Sunday (6/3) that was held at my house.  The shower was hosted by Jennifer Bergherm, Heather Cochron, Lisa Deininger, Loretta Hauck and myself; I provided the location and the rest took care of the theme, the food, the cake, the drinks, the decorations, the invitations, and the guest list.  Even though I had to do some massive cleaning to prepare for the shower, I am pretty sure that I got the easiest job!  Everything was so pretty and put together so well.  I loved all the pink & green & other girly touches!  Personally, I think that the shower was a success; we had a great turn-out and Amy got a lot of super cute baby girl clothes (and some other stuff!).  Most of our friends have little boys, so we all are going a little crazy with pink, purple, ruffles & bows.  :)

PInk Butterfly Cake by Jennifer Bergherm

In the life of Erik this week, he has begun to clap along to the songs "If You’re Happy & You Know it" and "The Wheels on the Bus".  We have found that Erik loves music and we can almost always get Erik to stop crying if we sing to him.  It could be that he is shocked into quietness due to the extraordinary vocal talent that Kent & I have (ha, ha); most likely, he is just pleased to be distracted from whatever is making him cry.  He will stop crying, listen for a bit and then start clapping.  I'm so happy that he is easily pleased.  

The week ended with Erik being in his first "fight" - and at church, no less, too!  The real story is that Erik and Zachary were "talking" to each other after church with Erik on Kent's lap and Zachary leaning in really close to Erik's face.  Kent warned Zachary to not get too close since Erik likes to give kisses with a little extra bite to them.  Zachary didn't listen and so Erik leaned forward, I'm sure just to give Zachary a friendly kiss on the nose, but ended up adding his teeth to it and gave Zachary a bite.  It had to have been at just the right spot on Zachary's nose, because while there was no broken skin, it gave Zachary a nose bleed!!!  Oh my, there we are in the church sanctuary and Erik made Zachary bleed.  Thankfully, Karis was right on it and staunched the bleeding.  Erik & Zachary are still friends :)  I happened to have my camera with me that day to take pictures of the matching shirts for Kaleb & Erik that Amy & I had bought earlier in the week.

The Aftermath!

Erik & Kaleb in matching shirts!!